The study explores pertinent issues around a comprehensive provision of antiretroviral drugs to HIV positive pregnant women in South Africa from a human rights perspective. Although these drugs have been proven to significantly reduce the transmission of HIV from a pregnant mother to her newborn baby/babies at birth, the South African government for over five years refused to roll them out in the public health sector. Reasons that were provided in this regard were multifaceted and have included claims regarding their alleged toxicity, potential side effects, huge cost, inadequate infrastructure, etc until March 2004 when it announced to start a national rollout program. It is in light of this that the study sets out to explore some of the key positions within the government and amongst activist groups on the health rights of HIV positive pregnant women, and how these different positions have evolved in response to each other. In particular, the paper aims at examining how discourses of human rights were employed, and how they have impacted on the Social Work discipline. It further focuses on developing a Social Work perspective on the human rights of HIV positive pregnant women in South Africa, thereby contributing to the discipline’s professional value base and body of knowledge, which inform, inter alia, its advocacy role and social action approach. The research project was embedded in a theoretical framework often referred to as ‘standpoint research’. An archival study of local and international literature and policy documents was conducted. This was complemented with a limited qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of five interviewees representing a cross-section of positions on the topic. This data was analyzed using a three step coding procedure that allowed for categorizing, connecting, and systematically relating the gathered data to each other and to the reviewed literature. The research findings indicate that the South African government’s absence of consistency and apparent lack of political will to rollout the drugs have contributed to the deterioration of the right of HIV positive pregnant women to access health care services. The role of civil society organizations in helping to realize, promote and protect the health and related human rights of this group is emphasized. It was also found that the different strategies employed to this end speak well to Social Work’s value base, and some of its methods and approaches to practice. Social Work is therefore well placed to join and support those efforts of other segments of civil society that have been investigated in this paper. The paper concludes by making recommendations towards, inter alia, the need for the South African government to adhere to the values enshrined in the country’s Constitution; to work closely and transparently with different organs of civil society; and simultaneously implement the said ARV rollout program while building and strengthening its infrastructural capacity. The various roles Social Work could, and should, assume with regards to improving the human rights of HIV positive pregnant women in this regard are also highlighted.

People who have been diagnosed HIV positive often experience distress and anxiety due to uncertainties pertaining to the implications of an HIV positive status. These individuals are often reluctant to seek counselling and treatment due to the fear of being rejected and discriminated against (Parker, et al., 2002). There are limited formal networks for HIV support and psychological help in the South African context. Considering this, structured support groups were implemented for recently diagnosed HIV positive pregnant women. These women were recruited from ante natal clinics in Atteridgeville and Mamelodi as part of the Serithi project. Six support groups were implemented and facilitated by various experts including Masters students, of whom the researcher was part. This project is part of the larger study of the Serithi project in which interviews were conducted with three hundred and seventeen HIV positive pregnant women from disadvantaged locations of Tshwane. Based on these interviews, a support group intervention was developed. This research forms part of the evaluation of the support group intervention. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of women who attended the support groups. Women who had attended 7-10 sessions were selected and interviewed individually using semi-structured interviews. With the permission of the participants, the discussions were tape recorded and transcribed. The data was analyzed, using qualitative research methods, from an interpretative phenomenological approach. This involved systematically studying meanings, themes and general descriptions of experiences by the research participants. The main findings in this study showed that women who participated in support groups adopted positive coping and behaviour that is conducive to their livelihood, learned more about HIV and AIDS, seem to have a positive future outlook and are overall empowered. These findings support previous research and literature in regards to the importance of social support in the form of support groups in effectively assisting HIV positive women in their journey to adjust to psychosocial consequence of the disease. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

Magister Curationis / The National Programme of Prevention of Mother to Child transmission (PMTCT) in relation to HIV/AIDS was introduced by the Department of Health in different sites per province in South Africa in 2001. The number of women has a chance to access antenatal clinic services during pregnancy but they start to attend usually in late gestation.

Student Number : 9402058P - M Med Research Report - School of Clinical Medicine - Faculty of Health Sciences / Objective In view of recent suggestions that HIV infection may protect against pre-eclampsia, this study was done to estimate whether untreated HIV positive pregnant women have a lower rate of preeclampsia-eclampsia than HIV negative women. Methods Subjects for this study were pregnant women from Soweto, South Africa, who gave birth from March to December 2002 at midwife-run clinics or at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, and in whom the HIV status was known. A sample size calculation indicated that 2588 subjects would be required to show statistical significance at P<0.05 with a power of 80% for a reduction in the rate of preeclampsia from 8% to 5% with HIV seropositivity, assuming an HIV seroprevalence rate of 30%. Data collection was by record review from randomly selected patient files and birth registers. Results In the total sample of 2600 women, 1797 gave birth at the hospital and 803 at the midwife-run clinics. The HIV seroprevalence rate was 27.1%. Hypertension was found in 17.3% of women, with 5.3% having preeclampsia-eclampsia. The rates of preeclampsia-eclampsia were 5.2% in HIV negative and 5.7% in HIV positive women (P=0.61). CD4 count results were available for only 13 women (0.5%). Conclusion HIV seropositivity was not associated with any reduction in the risk of developing preeclampsia-eclampsia.

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Social Work / M. A. (Social Science)

Social Work / M. A. (Social Science)